The End of Eden

XV

The rain had driven Annabelle and I, and the others, from the fields. The first day of the rain, we woke up to heavy, dark skies, threatening to burst open at any moment. Everyone but me had donned dark grey cloaks or ponchos, including Annabelle, but I had not.

"I don't have anything with a hood," I said when Annabelle had knocked on my door that first morning, a giant hood pulled up to shield her hair. She looked skyward, then back down to me.

"Oh no, and I don't have extras," Annabelle said, shrugging then reaching for my hand. "C'mon, we are going to be late."

She pulled me from my room, letting the door slam shut as we raced for the dining pagoda, where we dined on eggs, sausage, and pancakes.

"Ready to go to work?" Annabelle asked as we finished off our plates. I looked to her with one eyebrow arched up, they sky had not yet opened up on us, but I had no doubt it was coming.

"No, I'm not going out in that," I said, gesturing to the sky.

"We have to gather food to eat," Annabelle replied, yanking her hood back up to cover her hair.

"We have plenty already, we can skip a day." Indeed, the spring had been kind, allowing us to harvest more than enough food for the commune and causing those who worked in the kitchens to find creative ways to keep and store all the extras. This was the first day I had seen that had threatened heavy rain.

"What? You think you're so special you can just skip whatever days you want and not get your precious little head wet?"

I was so shocked from her words, that I stood stunned as she turned and marched from the pagoda and out of my sight.

Her words had stung. I had no idea why she had said such harsh words to me, not just now, but since we met up this morning. I didn't think I was special at all, I just didn't have a way of protecting myself from the rain when it did come.

And come it did, barely an hour later.

I was finishing washing up the last of the dishes, my hands pruned to within an inch of their lives, when the first crack of thunder tore through the sky. I jumped, dropping the knife I was rinsing in the sink, and leaned to look out the window. Within a few seconds, a downpour had started.

A few minutes after the crack of thunder, I was outside watching the rain, when a figure in a white dress streaked with mud and grass, with a grey cloak pulled over her head, appeared running for her room, a half filled basket of zucchini bouncing against her hip.

The rain let up during the night, but I didn't dare go outside because the threat still hung low over us. Serra had invited me back into the kitchen at dawn to help with breakfast, so very early the next day, after a dream of Sleep's face hanging in my peripherals, I opened my door, stifling a shriek.

"I thought we moved past that," Two said, stooping to pick up the linen wrapped parcel he sat at my door. "We are much more comfortable with each other now."

"I just didn't expect anyone so early," I replied, my hand pressing to my heart. I looked him up and down, noting the tired expression of his dark blue eyes. "Or, in your case, so late."

The cheeks under his mask rose up in a smile and it brightened his sleepy eyes. "I do love the night more than the day," he said, and then he offered me the parcel. "This is for you. I saw you didn't have one yesterday, so I thought to give you one of mine."

I opened up the linen to expose folds of black cloth, white embroidery down the back. I let the linen drop to the ground and shook out the material that smelled like him. It was one of his hooded tunics, exactly like the one he wore now, the white symbol of Sleep embroidered down the back.